Is advertising dead?

[daemon]

We are newspaper writers, so it isn't a surprise that the focal point on this board is the death of newspapers.

But with television and radio facing struggles similar to those of the newspaper industry, and with the struggles of all three industries to turn the Internet into a legit advertising vehicle, here's a question that has recently crossed my mind:

Is advertising, in general, dead?

Between the remote control and mp3 players and ad-blocking software, is it possible for any type of ad-supported information source to survive?

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Daemon, you have posed the question which keeps everyone in advertising and media right up to Rupert Murdoch awake at night with the cold sweats.
The evidence is growing that one effect of the recession will be a permanent reduction in advertising spending by many corporations. This is already affecting many other businesses besides newspapers. Radio is actually considered to be on thinner ice than papers by many analysts.
My answer to your question is, I think advertising will shrink as a revenue source but not disappear altogether. And by 2020, all media content will be on some sort of fee-for-service basis, either hidden in larger bills from cable and Internet service providers or straight-up charges from the media itself.

 

[bob]

All I can tell you is I opened my Sunday Boston Globe this morning and the auto section, once three large sections filled with dozens of ads, is down to one dinky section. Sadly, the Globe discontinued its tradition of fine auto writing some time ago and runs one bland syndicated story.

 

[RickStain]

It's not dead any more than books were dead when the printing press was invented.

It's just irrevocably cheaper now that the market is flooded with providers.

 

[Babs]

Advertising has a very "keeping up with the Joneses" hook to it. A business needs to advertise about equally with the guy next door. If he's not doing much, you don't need to either. So it seems like it will always go in cycles. Right now, we're in a downward cycle.

 

[mustangj17]

no.

 

[derwood]

No.

 

[topsheep]

Our advertising is doing great. In this two-newspaper town, we are bleeding the other paper dry and getting more and more full-page color ads. We had an 88-page paper two weeks ago with somewhere between 25 and 30 full-page ads, most of them color, most of those car dealership ads.

We were also just told that a car dealership plans to spend $2M in advertising this year and that they're going to spend most of that money with our paper only. So that's a major coup.

 

[zebracoy]

Our advertising is doing great. In this two-newspaper town, we are bleeding the other paper dry and getting more and more full-page color ads. We had an 88-page paper two weeks ago with somewhere between 25 and 30 full-page ads, most of them color, most of those car dealership ads.

We were also just told that a car dealership plans to spend $2M in advertising this year and that they're going to spend most of that money with our paper only. So that's a major coup.

So you're hiring, right?

 

[DanOregon]

I've always wondered about cable television. You'd think since there are maybe a dozen media companies that own 90 percent of the cable and broadcast channels why they don't just "shrink" the cable landscape which would give the audience fewer choices and create larger audiences for advertisers.

 

[daemon]

Dan -

I have no idea how various cable companies are doing financially. But it would seem that the goal for most advertisers is not to reach the broadest audience possible, but the most specific audience possible. An advertiser knows with pretty good certainty that if a viewer is watching the Food Channel, he or she is going to be interested in all things food: cooking, dining, etc. Same thing with the Travel Channel. So I don't know how much sense it would make to shrink the number of available cable channels.

Maybe it is because of this that the outlets who reach the broadest audiences -- newspapers and network television -- are struggling.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

An advertiser knows with pretty good certainty that if a viewer is watching the Food Channel, he or she is going to be interested in all things food: cooking, dining, etc.

Most the people I know who watch the Food Channel can barely operate the timer on their microwave.

 

[FuturaBold]

There will always be a need to market yourself, your business, etc. Whether or not the traditional model of putting an ad in the paper, or a classified ad, survives is a big question mark ... I think it will survive in small towns far longer than the big metros, but who knows...

Again, the buffoons who run newspapers (like our chain) run off good sales people because they are so cheap and refuse to pay them well (or make it impossible to make a decent commission) and hire amateurs who are nice and dress well but just don't know how to sell stuff. (kind of like hiring a sports editor with no experience for $8 an hour) ... We ran off two of our best sales people last year and they ate us for lunch when they started working for other local publications. Dumb, dumb, dumb...

 

[imjustagirl]

An advertiser knows with pretty good certainty that if a viewer is watching the Food Channel, he or she is going to be interested in all things food: cooking, dining, etc.

Most the people I know who watch the Food Channel can barely operate the timer on their microwave.

LIAR!

I don't even OWN a microwave!

 

[brettwatson]

While I am not ready to pronounce advertising dead, the trend with auto dealers is only going to add more fuel to the fire. GM is poised to close scads of dealerships, and that certainly can't be good for newspapers.

 

[STLIrish]

Advertising's cyclical. Always has been. Print advertising, however, and especially broad-spectrum general interest newspaper advertising, may well be on the ropes.
For most companies, there are just so many better ways now to get your message in front of the relevant eyeballs, be it through your website or online ads, cable tv (what Daemon said above is right on about niche cable networks) or niche and trade pubs.
My dad runs a small advertising agency in a big city, and he's pretty much given up on advertising in the metro daily. He steers all his clients who still want print to the local business journal, which has 1/10th the circulation but hits the customers they want.
Throw in the consolidation of department stores and cell phone companies, the devouring of classifieds by websites and the incredibly-shrinking auto industry and we (general-interest journalism folk) have got to find another way to get paid, posthaste. Subscription-model, anyone?